NCAA Men's College World Series 2024: ESPN's Cameras Take Viewers Deeper Into Wild Atmosphere in Omaha MindFly BodyCam, UmpCam, live drone, and aggressive mic placement highlight a loaded production plan By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, June 17, 2024 - 3:37 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
June in Omaha is a sports television tradition.
The relationship between the NCAA Men's College World Series and ESPN traces back to the roots of live sports on cable TV. The Worldwide Leader has been broadcasting games of this event since 1980 - less than a year after the network first went on the air. And yet, one could already make a strong argument that this 2024 edition might be the most exciting MCWS ever.
Camera operator Shane Marshall captures North Carolina's Vance Honeycut following his walkoff home run at the NCAA Men's College World Series on Friday. (Photo: Josh Lavallee/ESPN Images)
Walk off winners in the first three games of the dual double-elimination bracket tournament for the first time ever.; the second cycle in series history; and iconic defensive plays in the outfield lit up the opening weekend. And that's not even touching on the innovation that ESPN has brought to cover all of the excitement of this star-studded field.
College baseball and the Men's College World Series as a whole continue to thrive, says Phil Orlins, VP, Production at ESPN. Viewership and the scope of the production continue to increase each year. The long run of MCWS has always made this a great place to try new technology and in recent years the NCAA and the umpires have been great partners in allowing us to bring the coverage closer to the action than ever before.
On Board With Blue A wealth of resources has been made available at Charles Schwab Field Omaha Schwab for the production team headed up by Scott Gustafson, ESPN's production lead for college baseball. Most notable among the specialty camera lineup at this year's MCWS are the return of the RF UmpCam worn on the mask of the home plate umpire and the debut of the Mindfly AI BodyCam on the chests of the first and second base umps.
An umpire wears the Mindfly AI BodyCam during a game at the 2024 NCAA Men's College World Series. (Photo: Josh Lavallee/ESPN Images)
The MindFly BodyCam gets us unprecedented access and intimate views, says Orlins. The chest mount with AI stabilization provides a comfortable and smooth viewing experience while bringing the viewer onto the playing field like never before.
Here's a clip of the Mindfly AI BodyCam in action:
--
The Mindfly BodyCam vest, which is worn underneath the umpire's top shirt, is a system that has become increasingly popular at ESPN over the past month. It was worn by a backup goalie during pregame skate prior to a Stanley Cup Final game and by a referee during a UFL Playoff game.
UmpCam - which is proved by 3G Wireless - is being made available on the UmpCast AltCast on ESPN+ for all games, before getting the promotion to ESPNU for the Finals.
On the Field and In the Skies The front bench working in the truck in Omaha producer Bill Palladino, directors Scott Johnson and Jeff Evers, technical director Bob Yodice, and associate directors Brian Zwolinski and Heather Wilson are also painting gorgeous pictures all week long thanks to continued expansion of cameras that has established themselves at this event.
An angle that has become a staple at this event - and made its debut at the Women's College World Series earlier this month - is the on-field shallow depth-of-field cinematic camera.
On-field camera operator Shane Marshall with his rig on the field during the 2024 Men's College World Series.
(Photo: Joshua R. Gateley/ESPN Images)
This year's rig, which is operated by cameraman Shane Marshall, is a Sony A7 on a Ronan gimbal. It has permission from the NCAA to be in the dugouts and make its way out onto the field to track action during moments when the ball isn't live, including following a home run hitter around third and to home plate and pitchers coming off the field after closing out an inning.
The College World Series offers a unique stage where the stakes are so high and the players are so animated, and the Shallow Depth' is the perfect camera to bring this high drama home to the viewer, says Evers. [This] is a special setting for this camera because Shane is allowed to operate the camera in the dugout while play is going on. This gives us the ability to capture unique angles and images of players and coaches that we would not be allowed to capture in an MLB game.
A pair of NEP Fletcher Nucleus 4K pan-and-scan robotics are recording at 240 fps (frames-per-second). This one pictured is shooting down the third baseline. (Photo Courtesy: Phil Orlins/ESPN)
Meanwhile, up in the Omaha skies, a live drone returns as part of the arsenal, acquiring atmosphere from the city, as well as the stadium. Its most aggressive move has been in being able to fly above the playing field and escort in a pitcher entering from the bullpen.
We were successful in launching that initiative last year and the results were spectacular, says Evers. The images were incredibly powerful. This year, with the help of the NCAA, we are going to try a couple of additional drone movements inside the stadium to further bring the viewer at home closer to the experience of being in the stadium.
The drone, which pilot Mike Shea operates, is a product of ESPN's internal drone group.
ESPN's camera plan at the 2024 NCAA Men's College World Series includes seven super slow-mo cameras and four large lens manned cameras. (Photo: Joshua R. Gateley/ESPN Images)
ESPN operations has secured three hotel rooftops, as well as space at the Omaha Convention Center, the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridg
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
03/04/2026
Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...
03/04/2026
As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...
NCAA Men's College World Series 2024: ESPN's Cameras Take Viewers Deeper Into Wild Atmosphere in Omaha MindFly BodyCam, UmpCam, live drone, and aggressive mic placement highlight a loaded production plan By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
